Modi as BJP's PM candidate? No objection, clarifies Chouhan

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday dubbed as "baseless" the reports that he had reservations to having Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi being projected as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.

"Reports in certain sections of media about my objection to Modi being declared as PM candidate are baseless and misleading," Chouhan said on micro-blogging site Twitter.

There has been a lot of speculation about Chouhan opposing Modi and this talk gained ground after BJP veteran LK Advani praised the MP chief minister and put him in almost the same league as his Gujarat counterpart, at a party function in Gwalior this year.

Also, state BJP unit vice president Prabhat Jha ruffled feathers when he said last month that "Chouhan is good enough for the BJP to win the upcoming Madhya Pradesh polls and Narendra Modi was not needed here."

Chouhan's apparent opposition to Modi also became evident when pictures of the Gujarat strongman were not seen anywhere near Chouhan's "Jan Aashirwad Yatra."

However, Modi's pictures appeared a few days back on the Yatra route and gave an impression that Chouhan was not against the senior leader.